Syracuse lacrosse: Three Orange receive ACC weekly honors

The men and women both picked up some accolades after their respective 2-0 weeks.

This past week was a great one for Syracuse Orange lacrosse, as the men and women combined to go 4-0 with the men blowing out Manhattan and handling Colgate while the women picked up a pair of hard-fought ranked wins over Loyola and Notre Dame.

There were a lot of great performances that went into those wins, and the conference took notice.

For the men, Joey Spallina was named the the ACC Offensive Player of the Week while Johnny Mullen was named the ACC Defensive Player of the Week. It’s the second time in the last three weeks that ‘Cuse has swept the men’s weekly awards.

On the women’s side, Daniella Guyette was named the ACC Co-Defensive Player of the Week for the first time in her first season as a starter, sharing the honor with BC’s Shea Dolce.

This honor caps an incredible week for Joey Spallina, who scored a career-high 11 points against Colgate as part of his 17-point week in the two games. Joey became the first SU player since Paul Gait in the 1988 NCAA Tournament to score 11 points in a single game. And, of course, he also became the second-fastest player in program history to reach 200 points when he and Owen Hiltz both reached the landmark on the same play. He’s tied with Tim O’Hara for second-fastest behind Tim Nelson as the fastest to the double-century mark.

Johnny Mullen received the first ACC honor of his career on the strength of his spectacular week at the stripe. The sophomore went 32-of-44 (72.7 percent), including his near perfect 14-of-15 (93.3 percent) against Manhattan on Tuesday. He also compiled 21 ground balls, meaning he won 65.6 percent of his FO wins to himself. Lastly, he picked up his third point of the season with an assist against Colgate.

This is the fourth time in eight weeks that a Syracuse player has won offensive player of the week, two of which have been by Spallina. The Orange are also the only school to sweep both awards in the same week this year, which they’ve done twice.

Daniella Guyette was key in helping ‘Cuse pick up a pair of big, Top 20 wins against Loyola and Notre Dame. She finished with 11 saves in each game, and against the Irish, she had back-to-back saves with four minutes left to preserve a one-goal lead and help propel the Orange to the win. She now has double-digit saves in seven of 11 games this season.

This is the first player of the week honor of Daniella’s career, and she becomes the second SU player this season to receive defensive player of the week, joining Coco Vandiver who won it two weeks ago.

Both Orange teams are back in action this Saturday as they both take on the Virginia Cavaliers in conference play. The women will stay home for Senior Day in the JMA Dome at 12 PM, while the men will hit the road for a 1 PM meeting at Klockner Stadium. Both games will be on ACC Network Extra.